Randall Lane

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new dietary guidelines say many people—especially those over 50 and African-Americans—should limit their daily sodium intake to the equivalent of 12 pretzel rods. But rather than cut back across the board, perhaps it’s time to start treating salt, as with other good things that can be bad for you, more like a luxury to savored. With that in mind, we asked a handful of top chefs to tell us about their favorite salt, along with a dish to maximize the pleasure from that occasional sodium binge.